44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 27, 2023 10:00AM
- Apr/27/23 12:16:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, a commitment has been made as part of the G20 to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies by 2025. We brought that commitment up to the end of this year. We remain committed to doing that. I think it is very important that we do that because we know the world is quickly transitioning to a cleaner economy and there are tremendous opportunities for Canada, as we go forward, to do that. The subsidies we should be providing are the ones that we see in this budget, such as for clean electricity, clean hydrogen and other things.
I would also mention that the measures in the budget for carbon capture are very important, particularly to take some of the legacy emissions already in the air. There is a company in my riding called Carbon Engineering, which is doing direct air capture. We do need to support companies like that because even when we get to net zero, we are going to have to continue to take carbon out of the atmosphere.
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- Apr/27/23 3:10:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, earlier this year our government announced two major initiatives in Alberta and Saskatchewan that support Canada's commitment to investing in renewable energy and achieving the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Can the Minister of Public Services and Procurement please share the details of these investments and how this furthers the government's goals on greening initiatives?
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- Apr/27/23 3:11:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, recently we announced agreements with Alberta and Saskatchewan energy providers to power federal buildings in their provinces with 100% green energy. This will help reduce emissions by about 166 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is equal to the annual GHG emissions of more than 50,000 gas-powered vehicles. We are fighting climate change and greening government.
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- Apr/27/23 5:26:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member brought up the carbon tax on a number of occasions. I will say one thing, which is that we are consistent on this side. We ran on it in 2015. We implemented it. We continue to stand by it because we know and believe that it has been widely recognized throughout the world as a solution to combatting the emissions out there. However, we cannot say the same thing about Conservatives, because they seem to flip-flop back and forth as to how they feel about a price on pollution.
Can the member comment on what it was like in 2021 when she was going around knocking on doors and selling people on the price on pollution, which her leader, the member for Durham, was advocating at the time? Perhaps she did not agree with it, but can she tell us—
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- Apr/27/23 5:27:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my team and I did knock on 10,000 doors in Lakeland over the course of the campaign. I can just confirm that I never sold that plan, and Conservatives have resolved this issue. We will axe the carbon tax. I would like to talk about the initiatives that Canada can offer the world to help lower global emissions, which is the goal that the member says he wants to achieve with his carbon tax but clearly cannot.
Let me go back to the issue around critical minerals. Fewer than half of the mining applications in the last eight years have actually gone ahead under the Liberals. Canada has a huge opportunity to produce critical minerals and rare earth metals for our own self-sufficiency and secure development of the fuels of the future, and to export them. However, the Liberals' red tape keeps the minerals in the ground, while competitors and hostile regimes dominate globally. That is the exact same thing that is happening with LNG. When our allies are begging for Canadian LNG, these guys stand in the way.
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- Apr/27/23 6:32:19 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I already addressed that question earlier. Why do we not talk about the measures that could actually help reduce global emissions? This is what the Liberals say they want to do and are failing to do through their carbon tax, having missed every single emissions target except in the one year that governments locked Canadians down. It is LNG—
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- Apr/27/23 6:33:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this budget actually admits that the Liberals broke their own regulatory process for traditional sources of oil and gas and will now harm ever-increasing attempts at private sector investment in renewable and alternative energies in the future. There is $1.3 million in this budget allotted for regulators to “improve the efficiency” of assessments and another $50 million to help participants navigate Liberal red tape after eight years.
Let me just finish, please, the point on LNG. In the last eight years, 18 projects have been proposed in Canada. Only three have permits, and zero have been built. In the same time, the U.S. has built seven. They have approved 20 more, and they will build five more this year alone. Meanwhile, allies around the world are begging for Canadian LNG to help meet their energy needs and lower global emissions. That is what the government should focus on promoting.
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- Apr/27/23 6:47:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for giving me the opportunity to continue talking about that, because it is extremely interesting. I was talking about how many megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions Canada produces. It was 670 megatonnes in 2021. Our levels are obviously lower than they were in 2005, which is good, but it is important to remember that, when we say we want to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 40% or 45% by 2030, it is compared to the number for that base year. When we look at the overall picture right now, we have only reduced our emissions by 8.4%. We have a long way to go, and 2030 is not that far off.
We often hear the Minister of Environment and Climate Change say that we are a quarter of the way there and that everything is going well. When we are at 8.4% and we are trying to reach a target of 45%, I think it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that we are a quarter of the way there, particularly when this budget is focusing on technologies that have not yet proven to be effective. It is being said that these technologies will be ready in 10 years and that they will start giving results in 10 years. By then, 2030 will have come and gone. What are we actually relying on to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions?
I think that investing in these technologies is an underhanded way of continuing to give public funds to oil and gas companies. We are telling them to continue to produce but to pollute less as they do so.
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Madam Speaker, currently, when big emitters pay the carbon tax, the money is put aside and is used to finance green projects in the province where the tax was collected. If oil companies do not propose any green projects, they lose that money at the end of the year. This approach encourages them to move quickly.
With Bill C-47, the money would not be lost at the end of the year. Oil companies would keep the money for future projects, which would give them no incentive to hurry to implement green projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
What does my colleague think about that?
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- Apr/27/23 8:50:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this government has spent a lot on climate. Our greenhouse gas emissions are going up. We do not have substitute goods for high-carbon products and practices. We are not meeting our climate targets. They are not even measuring results of the program.
On housing, we do not have affordable housing stock.
On health care, people are waiting in emergency rooms.
Everybody feels that tune, and they have got to stop trying to deceive Canadians.
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